Impact of proctored examinations on students' performance in an online undergraduate pharmacology course

Background: Previous studies on assessment techniques in education have observed that students tend to take longer and score higher on unproctored exams than proctored exams in some disciplines. Objective: To investigate the impact of a post-pandemic return to proctored examinations on student performance in undergraduate pharmacology education. Methods: This was a quantitative, retrospective, observational study in which exam scores and time spent data were collected for two sections – one unproctored and one proctored – of an online 2000-level introduction to pharmacology course. Data between the two groups was compared using independent two-sample t-tests to investigate any statistically significant differences. Cohen’s d was calculated for effect size. Results: In aggregate, exam scores were statistically higher in the unproctored group than in the proctored group. Student time spent on exams was significantly longer in the unproctored group than in the proctored group. Conclusion: These findings support the consideration that students score higher and spend more time on unproctored exams than proctored exams in undergraduate pharmacology similar to many other disciplines. The explanation for this observation is likely multifactorial and may warrant further investigation.